[Morgan Herritage]

I had my first one. Had high hopes. Thinking at least the electricity type sharp pain would go away. I would have been happy if it were only for a week. Nah. It was a fast procedure. Got lots of IV pain medication but at the end of the day when the haze wore off, nothing changed. I'm on day 5 and still nothing. I may try one more. I hear the more they do, the better the odds of success.

[LIT LOVE]

Was it via flourscopy? Did they use Depro Medrol? Did you have a massage after?

[Dubious]

Originally Posted by Morgan Herritage

I had my first one. Had high hopes. Thinking at least the electricity type sharp pain would go away. I would have been happy if it were only for a week. Nah. It was a fast procedure. Got lots of IV pain medication but at the end of the day when the haze wore off, nothing changed. I'm on day 5 and still nothing. I may try one more. I hear the more they do, the better the odds of success.

I don't know what your insurance covers, especially now that everything will be severly scrutinized with recent insurance changes, but I needed multiple SGB's before I noticed significant relief. They all work differently on us all. My surgery which ruined me was in 4/2008. I am still a mess and am at around #20 SGB, I get a series of 2 or 3 now about every 4 months or so. Initially after about #6, I remember starting to feel a change for the better. It is not a perfect solution but that approach worked for me. It was more about maintaining and controlling to some degree, the pain...it was never about a cure!

[Morgan Herritage]

Yeah it was fluoroscopic. Had fentanyl 125 units and diazepam for nerves. Lidocaine on the neck. Don't know what he used for the blocking agent. No message just diluaded. Horners syndrome. Sore for a day but not horrible. I have blue shield ppo, private is the way to go. It covers anything I need. I may do a few just to make sure, will not go for SCS. Interventional can only go so far with RSD.

[LIT LOVE]

Originally Posted by Morgan Herritage

Yeah it was fluoroscopic. Had fentanyl 125 units and diazepam for nerves. Lidocaine on the neck. Don't know what he used for the blocking agent. No message just diluaded. Horners syndrome. Sore for a day but not horrible. I have blue shield ppo, private is the way to go. It covers anything I need. I may do a few just to make sure, will not go for SCS. Interventional can only go so far with RSD.

Discuss having him add Depro Medrol if you try again. It extended my results substantially!

Massage after a Block is a good idea.
http://www.rsdrx.com/massage_therapy.htm

[CRPSsongbird]

Originally Posted by Morgan Herritage

I had my first one. Had high hopes. Thinking at least the electricity type sharp pain would go away. I would have been happy if it were only for a week. Nah. It was a fast procedure. Got lots of IV pain medication but at the end of the day when the haze wore off, nothing changed. I'm on day 5 and still nothing. I may try one more. I hear the more they do, the better the odds of success.

I understand the feeling. I hated how the procedure made me feel and no better....It's really more of a diagnostic tool.....you now know you have SIP instead of SMP

[LIT LOVE]

Originally Posted by EMILY ANDERSON

I understand the feeling. I hated how the procedure made me feel and no better....It's really more of a diagnostic tool.....you now know you have SIP instead of SMP

It's really not that simple.

[CRPSsongbird]

Originally Posted by LIT LOVE

It's really not that simple.

Not totally, however that is how the Anesthesiologist explained it to me. He said sometimes it provides relief but usually only when it's sympathetically maintained pain. He said only a very small portion of CRPS sufferers have SMP, usually have SIP Independent pain. and when you have the independent pain it doesn't respond very well to the Block but at least they would know which type of pain it is

[LIT LOVE]

Originally Posted by EMILY ANDERSON

Not totally, however that is how the Anesthesiologist explained it to me. He said sometimes it provides relief but usually only when it's sympathetically maintained pain. He said only a very small portion of CRPS sufferers have SMP, usually have SIP Independent pain. and when you have the independent pain it doesn't respond very well to the Block but at least they would know which type of pain it is

I understand what he told you, but again this is simplified. I started to dig through to link explanations of why this isn't always the case, and decided it would be a project I didn't want to start. Research RSD, SMP/SIP, and blocks...

[Dubious]

Originally Posted by LIT LOVE

It's really not that simple.

I would agree. It is not entirely possible to know if ones pain is SIP or SMP as there is no definative test for such. SGB's are a "way" to sometimes help deliniated the issue. And I would hardly agree to any statement that one SGB is diagnostic of one type or the other. I can't make the call for you, but at least for me, I needed close to 6 or so SGB's before I could make the decision that they definitively worked for me or did not. And while I am not pain-free, my pain is much better than it was in comparison to the pre-SGB days. I get SGB's (2-3 at a time) about every 4 or 5 months. I feel (trending) better in the 1 month post-block and then variable at 2-3 months post-block and then miserable by 3-4 months. And then just like the movie "Groundhog Day," I get another series and life goes on in a better way. I understand that everyone's experience is different and I am both happy and (feel) guilty that my situation temporarily improves with intervention while others do not but I guess my point is that one should not shoot down the procedure after only one attempt!